


breathe through me

by yude_londa



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Dark Jeong Yunho, Immortal Song Mingi, M/M, Magical Realism, Murder as a Language of Love, Obsessive Behavior, Regeneration, Serial Killer Jeong Yunho, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:13:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29337345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yude_londa/pseuds/yude_londa
Summary: “I’m Mingi by the way,” his victim chirped, nervous and wobbly but still elated.It was a surprisingly cute name, just like its owner. Yunho couldn’t wait to claim it for himself.“Yunho.”Your killer.
Relationships: Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	breathe through me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be drawing a giant hand for my art class. But I’m taking a little detour and posting the first chapter of my very random and very dark AU. Very self-indulgent.
> 
> Hope you enjoy what little I can offer now.

Yunho was a spontaneous person. 

His nature of rushing headfirst into anything remotely exciting had landed him in more trouble than he could keep track of. He never cared if his choice of fun was less than legal and kept a separate bank account created exclusively for bail and bribe money. 

The perks of being the bastard son of an upper-class family that would do anything to keep their pristine image, as it were.

But that didn’t mean that Yunho couldn’t be patient and meticulous when he wanted to. And tonight, sitting by himself in a rundown sleazy club that had no security to speak of, Yunho really, really wanted to. 

Hours before, he got the true gift of being a Jeong bastard: taking the blame for his half-siblings whenever they fucked up. Never mind that he was in another city while his dear sister got caught up in a humiliating drug scandal, Yunho had to be the one to bow his head to her betrothed’s family and endure their degrading remarks.

 _A dirty mutt sullying his good sister’s name_ , indeed, he had wanted to take their prized china set and shove its shattered pieces down their simpering throats.

Needless to say, Yunho needed the night to go out on some kind of high note, or he was going to massacre his entire family plus a few more and spend the rest of his days in a high security prison. Planning and following through a murder might turn out to be counterproductive for anyone else in his situation, but Yunho knew himself. 

He was monstrous enough to make it work.

Surveying the room for any potential victims, he kept track of three people, all of them tipsy and without company. Two that Yunho could easily charm with a shy smile and an offer of more drinks, seeing how desperate they were to grope young men, and one that might just punch him if he tried.

Yunho was going to risk the punch. A potential way to ruin the plan and the night, sure, but he had to. The man was too enchanting not to.

There was the red hair that burned like rubies under cheap led lights, the pretty face that belonged to lovingly crafted porcelain dolls, and the lithe body that moved with grace meant for a world stage. Yunho wanted no one else.

Call it vain or sentimental, but he wanted his first time to be with someone beautiful.

So he watched, and he waited, until the man ran out of breath at last, _the stamina on him,_ and slumped on a seat by the bar. Yunho, quick on his feet as always, slid next to his victim before anyone else could. There were grumbles from people that waited for the man just as he had, and Yunho smiled at them, bland. 

He spared himself a moment to imagine clawing out their eyes, before turning to face his chosen. 

Indeed, the man was beautiful, even more so up close. Sweaty, panting and warm, everything pointing towards a healthy living being. Yunho couldn’t tell if that made him sick or excited. Both, probably.

“Uh, hi?” 

The man’s voice was surprisingly deep for a face as delicate as his, and it screamed confusion. Yunho startled, realizing that he had been staring for too long. He had very distracting beauty marks.

“Yes, hi, hello! Sorry for staring, you’re just—very pretty,” Yunho told him, smiling like he was flustered. He didn’t even have to lie then.

His victim smiled back, bashful, and Yunho got the impression if he wasn’t already red from exertion, he would be now. The man was expressive, friendly and very receptive to being called pretty by another man. 

Good.

“Anyway, this is—this might be very forward of me, and you’re totally free to turn me down, but would you mind if I kept you company tonight?” Yunho asked in a rush, purposefully nervous.

He was answered by a slow blink as the man processed the question and then a yelp as he finally got it. There was a bit of flailing that somehow looked both awkward and graceful. Then his victim straightened in his seat and pointed at himself, as if to say ‘ _wait, me?’_

Yunho could do without that whole bit, really, but he nodded anyway, keeping his smile soft and shy. Yunho knew that he had a kind and pretty face, a point of envy for his dear sister, and he intended to use it to its full potential.

“Yes! I mean no! No, I wouldn’t mind!” the man rushed to say, as if Yunho would have changed his mind if he didn’t answer quickly enough.

He wasn’t that lucky.

“I’m Mingi by the way,” his victim chirped, nervous and wobbly but still elated. 

It was a surprisingly cute name, just like its owner. Yunho couldn’t wait to claim it for himself.

“Yunho.”

_Your killer._

Introductions out of the way, Yunho leaned into Mingi, gently forcing himself into his prey’s personal space. Mingi stayed in place, looking like he was still questioning the reality of the situation. Any other time, any other place, Yunho would have treated Mingi to a nice dinner and then fucked him til he cried.

But even Yunho wasn’t crass enough to kill a one-night stand.

“My place? It's a few blocks away,” Yunho whispered next to Mingi’s ear and reveled in the shudder he got. 

“Yup, sure, anything you say,” Mingi whispered back, squirming.

Dangerous words, Yunho thought as he led Mingi out of the club by his hands, shouldn’t be taken so lightly.

Outside, the night was at its darkest hour, with only the occasional apartment windows shining a light down the debilitated streets. No one cared enough to look into the dark and see two men stumble into an abandoned construction site.

“I told you we took a wrong turn back there!” Mingi said, drunk and cheery and stupidly trusting.

With naivety like his, Mingi would have been screwed over sooner or later. Yunho was selfishly glad that he got to him before anyone else could.

“We didn’t. We’re in the right place,” Yunho said.

And before Mingi could parse the meaning of those words, Yunho crowded him against an old wall and kissed him, just once, just to taste, and got to work immediately after. The gasp of pure betrayal he got from Mingi when he jabbed him with a syringe wasn’t as satisfying as Yunho thought it would be. 

Futile as it was, Mingi tried his best to squirm out of Yunho’s hold, kicking and clawing and yelling. On his part, Yunho held unto Mingi with hands that mocked lovers, keeping him in his embrace until Mingi slumped over.

“Don’t…” Mingi began through gritted teeth.

 _Don’t do what?_ Yunho wondered. 

Don’t kill me? Don’t do this? Wasn’t that what the victims of killers usually said? A plea?

“...make it hurt.”

And with those surprising words, the man passed out, bearing his full weight on Yunho and leaving him very baffled. 

What kind of person didn’t protest getting killed as long as it was painless? Wouldn’t it better to be alive and hurting rather than—

Oh.

Mingi was suicidal, wasn’t he? 

It wasn’t naivety that led him into Yunho’s hands, but plain recklessness. Yunho chuckled humorlessly and hugged the limp body blanketing him just a bit tighter. 

A decent man would have let Mingi go, a good person wouldn’t have taken him in the first place. But Yunho was neither, and nothing changed the outcome of the night. He just dragged Mingi deeper into the building, a monster after all. 

When his muscles started screaming in protest, he sat down and laid Mingi between his legs. Rummaging through his pockets with gloved fingers, Yunho took out a razor wrapped in paper. Painless, he could do painless.

For a moment, Yunho stopped and reconsidered.

But no, he still wanted to take, take and _take_. The desire, _the hunger_ , had been with him since his childhood, and it was about time Yunho fed it. No point turning back. No one would be there to greet him anyway.

With that thought in mind, Yunho took Mingi’s wrist in his hands and skirted his fingertips across the man’s pulse point. If he concentrated hard enough, Yunho could feel the faint heartbeat through the cloth of his gloves. 

With a bated breath, he picked up the razor and ran it across the soft line of skin and flesh. 

Throwing aside the murder weapon and biting down on the tip of his glove, Yunho bared his right hand. He couldn’t see much in the dark, but he could follow the trail of blood with his fingers. 

Warm.

Blood gushed and spilled, down Mingi’s wrist and around Yunho’s hands. With each pulsing of Mingi’s heartbeat, more blood pumped out and renewed the red path. Yunho could touch Mingi’s life in those intervals.

In the silent darkness that housed only them, with his fingers digging into the cut he made, Yunho had never felt more connected to another person. Mingi, while unconscious, was undoubtedly there, with Yunho. It was a realization that came like a torrent of rain after a lifetime of drought.

The alien feeling overwhelmed him.

Yunho scrambled to take off his other glove and held Mingi’s wrist with both hands. Curling around Mingi’s back and keeping his eyes closed, Yunho held unto the feeling as long as he could. Already, he could feel the blood flow slowing and the heartbeat growing fainter.

Unexpectedly, Yunho regretted making the cut fatal. 

Yunho didn’t think he ever felt true regret either.

“I’m sorry,” Yunho whispered, planting a featherlight kiss on the mop of soft hair tickling his nose.

“I forgive you,” answered a hoarse voice.

Yunho startled, jerking his head back and staring down at the man in his embrace. His eyes took their time adjusting to the dark, and Yunho couldn’t tell what sort of expression Mingi was making. But the way the man gently curled his hands around Yunho’s wrist spoke volumes.

Mingi meant his words of forgiveness.

Yunho forgot how to breathe.

“I forgive you,” Mingi repeated, as if the first time wasn’t enough to unmoor Yunho completely.

“So don’t kill again, okay? Don’t ruin your life like that,” he continued, voice growing fainter and further crumbling Yunho’s world. 

Yunho laughed, manic, unable to articulate his feelings in any other way.

What kind of person forgave their killer? What kind of person worried about others in their last moments? What kind of person tried to save a man past the point of return? 

What breed, what gem was Mingi?

“Did I rob the world of an angel?” he asked.

 _Did I kill the one person who could have loved someone like me?_

Mingi never answered.

Once again, Yunho was alone in the world, a monster in a sea of millions that would have him hanged if they knew his true nature. Only this time, the monster knew what it felt like to hold and be held by another, and knew that it was starving in another way.

Yunho doubted that he’d ever feel full again.

The thought left him colder than ever.


End file.
